Wind, Rain and Booth 54
ArtsQuest in beautiful Destin, FL is always my last show of the Spring season. I love it for many reasons but I'm always glad when it's over because that means I finally have some time to relax. Just over 4 months until the next show.
I never do Summer shows because of the heat which seems to bring many afternoon thunderstorms here in the South. But mostly because of the heat...
This year, my first show of the year was in January in Crystal River (Manatee Festival) and while we had great weather on Saturday, the Sunday forecast looked downright nasty. High wind and heavy rain promised to punish our efforts to exhibit. We hated this because big crowds always show up and they are in a buying mood.
We and many others packed up Saturday after the show ended for the day. We were tempted to drive home that night but we were tired and our Airbnb was paid for. All night I second guessed myself for tearing down but the next morning the weather convinced me otherwise. Bands of heavy rain and gusting wind.
In Cedar Key on the 2nd weekend in April, we set up that Friday night under windy conditions but thankfully did not install inventory. Our Airbnb was on the same street and the later it got, the more the wind picked up. I barely slept, worried it would damage all those tents which lined the street of this sweet, quaint fishing village.
Walking to ours the next morning, we saw several that had buckled. One in particular was a gnarled mess and it hurt my eyes and heart to look at it.
Ours looked just fine. Until we unzipped the front and peered in.
It took a while to get it back together and thankfully, there was no permanent damage inside. Just a big mess.
The wind continued to taunt us all day but on Saturday night, it laid down and stayed down.
ArtsQuest weather was forecast to be messy on set-up day. Luckily our report time was early in the morning and the sun was eager when we arrived. Rain the night before had washed away the booth numbers and boundry lines, but someone had started marking spots again and showed us to ours. #54. We started our set-up.
We worked and watched as the sky got dark, then was overtaken again by the sun. I thought we were going to be okay weather wise but then a warning from the show came. Get ready, hunker down, they instructed. We zipped it up and waited in the car.
It was bad. Big rain, thunder, lightening, angry wind. And when it was over, I thought we were back in Cedar Key.
We put it back together and again, nothing was ruined albeit some things were waterlogged. Unlike Cedar Key, this was wind AND rain and while the event lasted only minutes instead of many hours, the outcome was much the same.
There was a least one tent that didn't make it. Twisted and dead on the wet pavement.
We secured our booth and decided to get some lunch so we headed West on 98 to the other end of Destin. The traffic was crawling and 40 minutes after we left, we still hadn't made it across town. The rains caused car wrecks on either end of town and bogged everything down.
Then I got a phone call from the show's director telling me I had set up in the wrong place and I would need to come back and move my tent.
WHAT?????
A heart attack was surely in my future, like within the next 30 seconds. Relocating my tent would take at least three hours and it would take at least that long to get back there the way this traffic was moving! UGH!
I assured her we set up where we were told to. She told me she needed to check something out and to sit tight, she'd call me back in a few. And when she did, she told me not to worry, that my booth was fine. I had indeed set up where I was supposed to. I never found out why they thought different. The artist beside me was a friend of the artist on the other side of me. It was their first show and they told me they had requested to be beside her. Maybe they assumed their request was granted and thought I set up in their space? I'll never know.
But I do know this:
Always, ALWAYS be ready for wind and rain.
Make sure you set up in the correct location and hold tight to that.
And for the next four months, the weather can storm all it wants to. I might just get out and dance in it...